If you know me, you know I don’t post on Instagram. I’ve had my page since seventh grade and I have one post to show for it, one that you can expect to be deleted at some point when I decide I want to “reinvent myself” again.
The reason for this? Instagram feels harder than it should be. It’s now expected to have your feed look cohesive with a theme and to have original captions for all your posts. The unwritten rules create stress, so I avoid the app altogether.
When I was younger, I took pictures of everything: Christmas lights, food, cars, anything you can think of. I took pictures of what I thought was pretty and what I wanted to remember. As I got older, it was increasingly important to “be in the moment” and get off of your phone. I took fewer photos and felt like I lost a passion for taking photos in general.
Instagram started becoming big when I was around 11. For a few years, I posted casual pictures as everyone else did, but I lost confidence in it as I continued. The quality of Instagram images started getting better, and mine fell short. Eventually, I didn’t have anything left to post.
Enter VSCO.
Becoming invested in VSCO made me feel like I did when I was younger and took photos of everything. I post pictures of animals and low-quality mirror selfies and what I had for breakfast that day and I do it as much as I want to. I feel no guilt about posting five times in an hour and don’t find it necessary to have professional-looking photos of myself on my page.
VSCO doesn’t ask you to have original captions, because it doesn’t ask you to have one at all. VSCO doesn’t ask you to think about how to make your post fit in with the rest of your page, because it gives you hundreds of filters to use for your ease. VSCO doesn’t care if you photo dump. VSCO doesn’t show followers. There is no way to show the number of likes on posts.
Whether we want it to or not, our Instagrams say a lot about us. People rack up thousands of followers and make brands for themselves through Instagram. In college, most everyone used Instagram to get a sense of who their random roommate was when they were moving into the dorms. VSCO has eased the pressure I once felt with social media and reintroduced me to the true purpose of social media: to share your life.
It’s likely you have VSCO since it got popular over five years ago, but it’s also likely that it’s sitting on your home screen, untouched for a decent amount of time. If you’re like me and feel like you’re losing a spark when it comes to Instagram or taking photos, try switching it up. Post the blurry photos you and your friends took at 2 a.m. or the meal that you made yesterday morning. I found it to be a confidence booster to post whatever I wanted to, so maybe it will for you too.